1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for loading articles into containers and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for loading articles rapidly into horizontally disposed plastic containers without damaging the containers.
2. The Prior Art
The Autobag patents disclose a packaging technique in which a chain of interconnected open plastic bags are used. In the earliest and simplest commercial form a roll of these bags was mounted on a mandrel and the mandrel was positioned in a box. A blower was connected to the box. Bags were fed, closed end first, out of a slot in the box. As the bags exited from the box, air from the blower exiting through the same slot as the bags would inflate each bag as it came out of the box. A product was manually inserted into the inflated bag which was then separated from the chain. The loaded and separated bag was then closed and usually heat sealed.
The dispensing of bags of the type described in the Autobag patents was intially accomplished with disposable shipping containers that also served as dispensing containers. As a next step in the evolution of equipment for effecting packaging with a chain of open bags, manually controlled dispensing machines were developed. These machines were adapted to receive coils of interconnected open bags. The bags were fed through a dispensing opening in the machine vertically downwardly along a path of travel. In a typical operation an operator would manually insert a product, after a bag had been blown open. The operator would then manually separate the bag from the chain of bags and insert the opening of the now loaded bag into a heat sealer. Concurrently with the separation of the now loaded bag the operator would feed the chain of bags to bring the next succeeding bag into the loading station.
More sophisticated relatively automatic equipment has been developed for loading and sealing chains of open bags. An example of such equipment is that disclosed and claimed in the H-100 Patents. With that equipment, bags are automatically fed to the loading station. In addition, they are automatically sealed and separated from the chain after products have been loaded in.
While both chains of bags which have been sold under the trademark AUTOBAG and machines sold under the trademark H-100 by Automated Packaging Systems, Inc. have enjoyed good commercial success, certain products have not been susceptible to automatic insertion into an open bag of the AUTOBAG type. Heretofore, automatic loading has been effected essentially only by gravity feed of products into the bags. While gravity feed is highly successful for many products, it has not proved successful for relatively sharp and heavy products or for relatively soft and bulky items such as pillows and shirts.
Proposals have been made for the loading of relatively large and bulky products. Examples of such proposals are the Machines and the Vacuum Belt Patents. While there have been such proposals, none has been successful for the loading of heavy sharp objects or for the loading of large bulky objects into a chain of bags of the Autobag type. The Machine and Vacuum Belt Patents each teach use of a chain of closed bags which are fed with the lead bag open end first rather than a chain of open bags fed closed end first.
While the problems attendant to loading relatively heavy and sharp products into an open bag of a chain have been alleviated for many products by mechanism disclosed and claimed in the Lattur Patent that mechanism has not been fully successful for all products which ideally should be packaged in plastic bags. In addition, there has been no successful commercial mechanism for "stuffing" relatively large bulky products into bags.
Effective and high speed separation of a loaded bag from a chain of bags has also been a problem. With the initial efforts using shipping containers as dispensers, separation was manually effected. Typically an operation effected such a separation by tearing perforations forming a line of weakness between adjacent bags. A pointed projection was used to initiate the tearing action of a location, transversely speaking, near the center of the line of weakness.
With the earlier reloadable manual dispensing arrangements separation typically was effected by tearing the bag from one side edge toward the other to separate it from the chain. With the H-100 machine this side-to-side separation was made automatic and concurrent with the heat sealing operation.
In an earlier attempt at an automatic machine for loading and sealing bags of a connected chain, a mechanism was devised in which two fingers struck the chain generally at a transverse midpoint of the chain to effect separation of a loaded bag. This mechanism is disclosed more completely in the Automatic Patent. While effective bag separation was achieved, the mechanism disclosed in that patent was not the ultimate solution because among other things it was necessary to effect a relatively accurate registration of a line of weakness in the chain where the separation was to be effected and the fingers which were to effect that separation.